Vancouver photographer says Meta wrongly banned him, costing jobs and contact with friends and family

A Vancouver photographer is questioning the accuracy of Meta’s AI moderation after being banned from Facebook.

A British-born photographer says his social media accounts with Meta have been suspended on severe allegations, hurting both his livelihood and his connection with family and community.

Just days after photographing the Vancouver Half Marathon, Simon Richards received messages from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, saying he had been banned from both platforms for alleged violations of Meta’s policies concerning child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity, allegations he strongly denies.

“That’s a very severe allegation to make against someone,” Richards said.

Richards, who pursues photography part-time, says the ban has cost him job opportunities. He claims he was never told which specific images triggered the alleged policy violations. He also says he takes care to avoid photographing children in ways that would identify their faces.

Richards says because of the specific allegation, Meta says it has reported the incident to the U.S. National Center for missing and Exploited Children.

“It makes me nervous to travel,” Richards said.

Meta has not responded to CTV News’ request for comment on Richards’ case.

The company has recently shifted from human moderators to artificial intelligence systems to help review flagged content — a move experts warn is not always accurate.

Richard Zhao, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Calgary, said the responsibility ultimately rests with Meta.

“Meta has the responsibility to ensure users have a way to report these issues and have them addressed in a fair and equitable way,” Zhao said.

Richards says the ban has had consequences beyond losing jobs. Separated from his home country, he says the suspension has also cut him off from friends and family and diminished his ability to participate in online community life.

“I think for a lot of people, until it happens to them, they think if you’re banned from social media, you can’t see your funny cat videos,” he said.

“Losing all access to friends and family, my inability to engage with community, all of those things, the impact’s actually a lot harsher than some people realize.”

He is considering legal action, though he posits it may be a steep challenge to pursue such a case against a large company like Meta.

Meanwhile, more than 40,000 people have signed a petition calling on Meta to review the case and improve its moderation and appeal processes.